I am a Muslim. The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 shook my faith to its
foundation. I am angry and ashamed that Muslims will forever be remembered for
such horror.

But being angry and ashamed is not enough. Muslims must ask ourselves, how
did we get here? We are long overdue for a healthy dose of introspection. We've
heard many times how the U.S. government must reexamine its foreign policy and
about the list of corrupt dictators it calls friends. It is just as important
for Muslims to do our own soul-searching.

For starters, liberal, moderate and progressive Muslims must speak out. We've
been quiet too long, and I blame us for the sad state of affairs of the Muslim
Umma (community) as much as I blame the clerics, whom, I must admit, I gave up
on long ago.

It is no longer enough for the clerics to issue tired platitudes on how Islam
means peace and surrender. Where were they when Osama bin Laden and his
coalition of terrorists vowed to target every American man, woman and child?

We have to look inward and ask ourselves what in Islam, what in the way it is
practiced today, allowed bin Laden to promote his murderous message? And,
please, those of you out there penning letters to tell me Islam is nothing but a
bloodthirsty religion of the sword or that the Sept. 11 attacks were a Zionist
conspiracy that had nothing to do with Islam -- save your ink and close those
e-mail messages. I have no time for either camp.

I belong to a third camp that refuses bin Laden's options of being on his
side or with the "infidels." I am fed up with the self-pity and self-denial that
for too long have paralyzed Muslim thinking. By constantly blaming Western
conspiracies for our ills we fuel our own helplessness. Strength is the essence
of introspection.

We must make that introspection public. We should not be ashamed to question
out loud. Muslims love to remind the world that the Islamic empire at its height
stretched from Morocco to China. That we gave the world Avicenna, Averroes and
the concept of zero. That at its founding, Islam gave women more rights than any
other religion or social system.

All that is true, and I have shared in that pride. But by pointing to our
achievement and not to our shortcomings we give in to what I call the Pyramid
curse. I am from Egypt, home to the Great Pyramids of Giza. When I lived in
Cairo I would swell with pride whenever I saw those magnificent structures. But
that pride was often tempered with sadness that their magnificence was a
reminder of what Egypt used to be. They are three gauntlets thrown down nearly
5,000 years ago by a golden dynasty whose splendor we strain to understand, let
alone better.

Some may question who I am to speak for Muslims. My answer is who is bin
Laden? He received no formal religious education but took it upon himself to
represent us. He does not represent me. I am a Muslim woman who is wrestling
with her faith and questioning its meaning for me today. It is equally my right
to speak out.

About 10 years ago, I went through a crisis of faith that swept away lazy
answers and made me realize how much work it takes to keep my faith viable. For
inspiration I turned to Muslim scholars whom I considered revolutionaries. They
were reinterpreting Islam by looking at it squarely with modern eyes. They dared
to utter the R-word -- reformation.

One of these books was "Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human
Rights, and International Law," by Abdullahi An-Na'im, an Emory University law
professor. I recently turned once more to his book and wrote to Prof. An-Na'im
to seek his advice.

He wrote back to tell me that he was about to oversee a new program that
includes supporting nine fellows over the next three years to promote human
rights in their own communities from an Islamic perspective.

Muslims in America are fortunate because we are free to debate without
risking our lives. Prof. An-Na'im's book presents and builds upon ideas of
Sudanese Muslim jurist Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. The Sudanese government publicly
executed Taha in January 1985. Many Muslims consider Taha's ideas controversial
because of their espousal of reform, but they offer a welcome alternative to the
fundamentalists, whose ideas too often go unchallenged.

Kevin Hasson pointed out in his Dec. 27 op-ed article how religious freedom
in America had influenced the Catholic Church. American Jewish friends have told
me how their faith has evolved in America and given birth to the
Reconstructionist movement. Muslims in America have the chance to lead the way
for the Umma.

The writer was a journalist in Egypt for 10 years. She now lives in the
United States.